Property

July 2014 – ACT & Queanbeyan Monthly Property Market Wrap

The weekly Allhomes ACT & Queanbeyan Property Market Wrap has been well-received by Rioters and we’re pleased to now offer a more in-depth analysis of the current property market for the Canberra and Queanbeyan regions.

These detailed reports will be posted monthly so keep an eye out for the August 2014 Property Market Wrap coming soon to RiotACT.

Below we have included a simple summation of the state of the local market based on July 2014

Spring is coming and it’s tipped to bring back more than just temperatures above zero.

Property prices are growing, rental prices have ceased their persistent decline and we continue to enjoy record low interest rates. So will the spring market have what it takes to thaw frozen consumer confidence?

Consumers are still nervous

Despite fears that the budget might cause both activity and median property prices to fall, all signs currently point to a smooth recovery for the Canberra property market.

Whilst still not regaining the ground lost in the wake of the budget delivery, there has been a modest rise in consumer confidence.

Once Canberrans take stock of the true impact the government’s budget will make on their own household finances, we can expect consumer confidence to be regained and buoyancy to return to the market.

Property prices are growing

Property prices have grown since this time last year. The median house price in July 2014 is up +3.4% to $552,219 and the median unit and apartment price has grown +2.9% to $401,000.

Townhouses are the only property type to have declined in price, dropping a modest 0.8% to $415,500.

Surprisingly (and contrary to our apparent pessimism) the Canberra housing market has remained relatively active over the usually quieter winter period.

Seller activity has grown over the past two months with 668 properties listed for sale in July 2014 (compared with 659 in June) and a total of 2,443 properties on the market at the time of writing.

Buyer activity also grew with 585 sales recorded over July 2014 (compared with 545 in June).

The RBA have now kept official cash interest rates at a record low of 2.5% for an entire year. These savings are slowly being passed on to consumers by many mortgage providers, which is creating a highly competitive mortgage marketplace; a big plus for all involved in property transactions right now.

Rental prices have stabilised

Canberrans have traditionally endured a notoriously tight rental market. In July 2013 landlords were fetching a median rent of $425 and filling their properties within an average 37 days of listing. A year later, the median rental price sits at $400 and properties are taking on average a full week longer to rent.

But there is a light on the horizon.

After decreasing by a whopping 5.9% over the past 12 months, median weekly rents have now remained stable for two months. The only property types to alter in weekly median rent were apartments and units of 2-3 bedrooms, which showed a modest increase.

Property hot spots

Allhomes.com.au has highlighted one suburb from each district as showing the strongest sales performance for July 2014, based on factors such as median annual price increases and asking vs sold price ratios.